Pepperdine's scholarly community equips students with a liberal arts education anchored in Christian values. Our commitment to integrating faith and learning challenges our students to understand that the gift of knowledge ultimately calls for a life of service. With this commitment in mind, please respond:
Tell us how the integration of faith and learning can prepare you for a life of service, and discuss the impact service-learning can have on the renewing of your mind, spirit, and community.
Being the Student Chair of Benjamin Franklin High School's only school wide Fundraiser: "Ben Franklin High School International Festival" or otherwise known as Fruhlingsfiere; I have discovered just how big an impact a small group of dedicated volunteers can make on a community. I have learned through out my two years of overseeing the festival that it was not only the hard work each volunteered put out that made the event possible, but also the faith and trust the community put in the leaders of the festival that made the celebration possible. While I am not a Christian and do not have a particular faith (in the religious sense), I do believe in faith in the sense of self assurance, devotion, and loyalty. Attending a nationally ranked high school for the past four years, I discovered that faith and learning is the combination for a successful life outside of school.
A particular event stuck to me; I remember listening intensely as my English teacher shared an anecdote about one of his Turkish friends starting a program in Turkey to help underprivileged kids. As he continued on in his story, filling it with detailed descriptions and vivid imageries, I realized he was not telling this for the sake of our entertainment; He was teaching us both how to stylize a narrative and to understand the impact one can make on a community by initiating a program for others to volunteer in. His story moved so many of his students and after the bell rang that day, I heard many of my peers discussing the values of helping out others. By integrating faith and learning, my English teacher planted the seed of philanthropic thinking in his students. While that one story is not going to inspire my peers to spend their weekends doing charitable work, it is going to instigate my peers to start thinking about reasons to spend time reaching out and giving back to their community.
I feel that giving back to society is not only improving the community but also improving myself in multiple ways. After dedicating hours each week to Fruhlingsfiere for two years, I have developed in to a more mature and cultured person. I have become more aware of what I value most in my life, how fortunate I am, and discovered that participating in a community building event brought me more in touch with how I want to spend my life after school.
any suggestions on improving it? are there any grammatical errors?
You know, I find that alot of people struggle with this prompt. You didn't address how faith (the religious kind) impacts how you will serve the world and in turn the lord, in fact you are using a past event to answer a question about the future. Your answer doesn't fit the prompt at all, I'm sorry to say. You could write an essay and use this as a small anecdote but to base your essay on this is incorrect
Unfortunately, I will have to agree with caisson22. But he/she is wrong about the faith; it is not necessarily to use a religious faith in the essay. You can use the faith you talked about--faith in the sense of self assurance, devotion, and loyalty. I like that idea. However, your essay doesn't address the prompt. I would suggest to write another one but be careful with grammatical errors. Revise the essay and improve it using more sophisticated language.
I also suggest that you develop your ideas more fluently. (I can't read this essay and understand it at the first sight and I'm sure the ones who are going to read it will not have the time to read two or more times.)
Hope this helps!
